The End

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

The fire inside of me refuses to quench even as I fly open the door to my house and slam it before rushing upstairs, slamming my bedroom door and collapsing onto my bed. Fear stabs me over and over again and I roll around to try and rid myself of the feeling, but it's impossible. I mean, how am I supposed to calm down if I know that there are aliens out in the woods probably eager to sink their teeth into human victims. The thing that almost killed me is dead, but I bet there are more still out there. Finally, I leap off my bed and sit at my desk, where I have a google glass screen I can scroll through. I open to the Google search page and type in the one word on my mind. Aliens. Then I click the search button with my finger and watch the results pop up onto the screen.

I bite my fingernails as I click on the first article that pops up. I read one section of it: Thanks to the many searches NASA has encumbered, I am pleased to announce that there are no aliens in our galaxy or any other galaxy. I shake my head and purse my lips, exiting the site and this time pressing images on the search menu. Pictures pop up in lines for me to click on. These were different. Some were alien movie shots, like from The Other Beings, or even movies as old as E.T. But others come out as ancient paintings. Paintings of what people think aliens would look like. Legends of crashing flying saucers, little, big-headed aliens landing, and terminating the human race. Some weird stuff even dates back to really old folk tales, like blood-sucking aliens and man-eating creatures with huge, razor-sharp teeth...

I click the back button quickly on the google-glass with my finger to try and erase my racing thoughts. I exit out of Google completely and lay my head on my desk. What if some of these legends are real? What if there is a whole army of aliens coming for us, determined to make our home their own?

I look up and around my room. It is always so quiet, which is normally just the way I like it. But now, it just seems ominous, like a tremendous amount of noise will happen any moment that would mean danger or death. I get up and stare out the huge glass window that makes up a whole wall of my room. I remember gazing at this last night, except that was nighttime. This is the late afternoon. It is the noisiest time of day for us. Many cars zoom past my window, and the forest looks like it always has...except something is different. I can't pinpoint exactly what it is, but it is something about the way the light sets on the trees...

I hear an engine shudder and make a stop by our house. I lean over to see a car parking in our driveway. I know that car.

"Jaden!" It's Patrick. I turn quickly to see he has opened my bedroom door, and a huge grin is set across his face. "Dad's home!" He exclaims, before stomping down the escalator.

I can barely hide my excitement myself. I haven't seen my dad in what, nine months? I can't help but smile and sprint downstairs after my brother.

The first thing I see when I reach the end of the escalator is my dad and my brother embracing. Patrick quickly moves aside when he sees me and my dad trains his warm, brown eyes on mine. Now it's my turn to rush down the escalator and throw my arms around him, happily.

"Jaden," I hear him murmur into my shoulder.

"Dad." I return the greeting and turn to face him. He is still wearing his army uniform and has a nasty cut on his forehead. But all in all, he seems okay. He's still my dad. Patrick nuzzles into our embrace and I train my eyes on my mom, who's standing aside, looking at me and Patrick warmly. But she shares none of that warmth with my father. My dad lifts his gaze to meet hers and nods, smiling slightly. My mom doesn't return the gesture.

"I missed you so much," I tell my dad.

"I missed you too, Jaden," He replies. He squeezes both of us. "I missed both of you very much."